Rob Van Dam Shares Details About AEW Debut
Rob Van Dam has opened up about his surprising debut for AEW.
The 200th episode of AEW Dynamite was not without surprises as Jerry Lynn brought in an old friend to confront Jack Perry. Perry had been dismissive of ECW in recent weeks after defeating HOOK for the FTW Title that was introduced to ECW by HOOK’s father Taz.
Perry and Lynn were set for a face-to-face in Tampa but after telling Perry there was no way he’d ever be cleared to get physical, Lynn introduced everyone to someone who would happily make Jack Perry eat his words, his old friend Rob Van Dam.
Speaking on his 1 Of A Kind podcast – courtesy of Inside The Ropes – Rob Van Dam opened up about making his first appearance for AEW which included his first face-to-face meeting with Tony Khan:
“I had only talked to him on the phone before so last night I met him and, obviously he was cool, respectful and he reminded me that he had told me this on the phone a long time ago, that as a fan, he was at the stretcher match of RVD and Sabu in Philadelphia.
“He said he was there and he said that he, you know, that he felt like that night, you know, was like a big vehicle moment that catapulted me, you know.
“At the time, it was like my favorite match at the time. I loved it. I remember the match, you know, really well, certain spots of it. But at that time, every match for me was the next one would be my favorite, you know, the next one, especially with Sabu.
“He was there and that was a real special night for him as a fan too. So pretty cool.”
Rob Van Dam came to AEW with familiar music
One thing fans noted when Van Dam made his debut is that he had his famed ECW theme song Walk by Pantera back and RVD lifted the lid on how he felt having his signature song back after so many years:
“That was awesome. Yeah, when I found out that he was gonna have the rights ‘Walk,’ it just like put me in a different vibe. You know what I mean? Just knowing the reaction that was going to get and how the fans would be emotionally connected to that, you know, let it play for a few seconds.”
Rob Van Dam noted that he had asked to get the song but didn’t know it was going to play him to the ring until shortly before he made his appearance:
“And then it wasn’t until a little while, hour or so, within the first hour when I was at the building when that just changed. I was like, ‘What? Wait, how? Is this updated? Because I just yesterday … sweet!’ I was like, ‘That’s awesome.’
“So yeah, I read some of the comments on social media for, for people saying like brought tears to their eyes and stuff like that. It’s pretty cool.”
Rob Van Dam will compete in his first – and possibly only – match in AEW on the 9th of August edition of Dynamite when he challenges Jack Perry for the FTW Championship.